PHOTO ART: Mini-Challenge #01 - Mountain Man

[Pam]

Originally posted by alex
Pam, yours look like a real painting, what did you do it
after Danny's Tut ?

Hi Alex,

Danny's tutorial got me started playing with the dry brush filter and using layer masks to preserve detail. That playing around spun off into finding a quick method to preserve detail while adding a brushed look by using a luminance layer. But basically the "painted" effect comes from a standard technique of "hiding" the image with a white layer, then revealing it by painting black on a layer mask. Here are my steps:

1 Dupe the original layer

2 Run Filter>Artistic>Dry Brush (or filter of your choice) on the top layer

3 Activate the first layer (original image), and hit Ctrl + Alt + ~ (tilde), then Ctrl + J. This will load the luminance (basically all the lighter parts of the image) as a new layer. Move this new layer on top of the dry brush copy. This will add some detail back and leave the glasses with a cleaner line. You can adjust this effect overall by lowering opacity or selectively by using a layer mask. You now have 3 layers:

• The bottom, original photo layer
• The second, dry brushed layer
• The luminance layer

4 I then added a sandstone texture layer, set to overlay mode

5 Open a pattern adjustment layer, choose "Parchment", set to overlay mode, about 30% opacity. I scaled this at 70%

6 Open another pattern adjustment layer, choose "Stucco 2", set to overlay mode, about 30% opacity. I scaled this pattern at about 550%

7 Open a new layer, fill with white. Add a layer mask. Paint black on this mask at a low opacity to reveal the image beneath. I used the "Heavy Scatter Flow" brush that can be found under "Wet Media" brushes

There are many more uses for the luminance layer. One is to increase saturation. Adding a hue/sat adjustment to the luminance layer allows you to saturate colors well beyond what is possible when using hue/sat directly on the image itself. You can also add filter effects to the luminance layer itself. This will contain the effects to the lighter areas of the image.

Also, when you hit Ctrl + Alt + ~, you are making a selection. This can then be used as a mask by clicking on the "add layer mask" button. Effects applied to this layer will affect the lighter portions of the image. Try inverting the mask to apply the layer effects to the darker areas of the image. The layer mask itself can also be manipulated. For example, blurring it or adjusting the contrast, etc.

This image ("Mountain Man") seemed to work well with multiple, rough type textures. You might want to discard some texture layers or use softer, more subtle textures with other images.

Whew! This response seems to have turned into a luminance layer tutorial. Probably more than you wanted to know


Let me know if this works for you...
Pam

[alex]

Thanks Pam, for the detailed explanation, I will try that.

[photofixer]

cautiously gazes out at the civilization he intended to leave behind, and he wonders.......

"Is it really too late to duck and cover?"

(sorry, I couldn't resist :-)

This one is done with Flaming Pear's Wavy Color filter, an Infra-Red action, and a bit of tweaking in Photoshop.

I know this is an old thread, but Pam..... your painting is beautiful! Thanks for the great how-to. I love this place.



Sharon

[johnim]

Well here is my first.
New to RetouchPRO and have had Photoshop about 4 months.
I’ve been lurking for some time and have learned a lot from you guys.
What a great web site and software.

[DannyRaphael]

Sharon:

Glad you got this thread going again. It's a great pic with which to work. Your interpretation is one of the best/most creative that I have seen.

- - - - - - - -

Hey, John:

Congrats on your first pic. For only having had PS for a few months, you're doing a heck of a lot better than most folks. Very creative and well done.

By all means continue to tackle any of these older threads. No time limit on having fun and being creative.

~Danny~

[Cheryl H]

1. convert to CYMK
2. duplicate black channel. turn all channels back on except the new black copy
3. convert back to RGB
4. load black channel as a slection
5. impressionist (custom setting paint swirls)
6. paint engine fade 65
7. deselect
8. create new layer. flood with dark brown. texturize
9. add layer mask to brown layer and paint image back in.

[Joy_CA]

This was fun....

[Joy_CA]

Sketch fun....
Joy

[Neve]

Painter 8.1

As a newbie to this marvellous program I'll continue to "clone" for a while to come.....

Water Color Fine Cloner - default - Face and Hair
Water Color Wash Cloner - default - shirt and face
New Layer - Soft Cloner - face

PSP8.1

Canvas Texture applied twice and sharpened.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Neve

Painter 8.1

As a newbie to this marvellous program I'll continue to "clone" for a while to come.....

Water Color Fine Cloner - default - Face and Hair
Water Color Wash Cloner - default - shirt and face
New Layer - Soft Cloner - face

PSP8.1

Canvas Texture applied twice and sharpened.

Great for you, Neve. You are making some remarkable progress with Painter. Well done.

As you know the brushes in the Cloner group are predefined to clone.

In case you haven't discovered it yet ANY brush variant can be turned into a cloner brush and used in the same way.

Here's how:
* Assuming you've opened your image and setup the clone source, you need to be able to get to the Colors palette, so be sure it's visible.
* Now choose a brush from any other category (your choice).
* On the Colors palette toward the bottom-left is a button that looks like a "stamp." (It's referred to as the "Clone color" button. It's icon looks like the one used for Photoshop's "Clone Tool.") When this option is in effect (click it) you're telling Painter to draw color from the underlying clone source image, not the currently selected foreground color.

This works in a fashion similar to Photoshop's "Pattern Stamp Tool" where the color source is the current pattern or the "History Brush" or "Art History Brush" where the color source is the active snapshot.

CAUTION:
It's really easy to forget to turn ON this option when selecting a non-cloner brush. By default it's OFF for all other brushes.

So, if you pick a brush and start painting away and get (say) all yellow or black or red strokes, it means you forgot to activate this option. Just "undo," click the button and clone away.

Have fun, keep experimenting and don't blame me if you get less sleep tonight!

~Danny~

[Neve]

You're a sweetheart Danny! Thank you for your encouragement and the tip especially....already printed it! I'm babysitting another grandson all of next week so there wont be much painting going on. It will be all outdoor activities instead!

[SWEngineer]

Since Neve brought this thread back to the top, I though I may as well post a couple images I made several weeks ago. Basically, I was playing with the bandpass idea, running Highpass=6, GBlur = 1.5 on the orginal to greatly simplify the image. Than I ran every filter possible on separate copies of the bandpass to compare results. Here are a couple of these further refined / tweaked:

Image 1. Base image. Sketch>Plaster. Fooled around with some filtered noise and Hue/Sat to colorize to get an embossed hammered copperish thing.

Image 2. Base image. Other>Minimum. Image>Adj>Equalize. Artistic> Sponge.

-Mark

[Neve]

Two totally different and creative results Mark. Terrific. I especially like the Punched Copper effect!

[jaykita]

Corel Painter 8, chalk.

[Neve]

Jaykita - as I said, you're an inspiration!